Mercedes’ compact car plant in Kecskemét, Hungary will soon work at full capacity as the carmaker has announced the addition of a third shift in May. The plant builds the CLA four-door coupe and the B-Class and complements the Rastatt facility in Germany, where the A-Class, B-Class and GLA are assembled. The Rastatt plant has been operating in three-shift mode since October 2012.
In addition to the third shift, both plants had already worked numerous extra Saturday shifts last year to satisfy customer demand. Mercedes says this flexible operating mode will continue this year independently of the introduction of three-shift operations at Kecskemét. The Hungarian plant employs approximately 3,400 people.
“Most recently, our production has hardly kept up with the dynamic sales development of our compacts. That’s why we are now switching our second compact car plant to three-shift operations as well – this allows us to serve the wishes of our customers around the world even better and timelier,” said Daimler CEO, Dr. Dieter Zetsche.
Sales of Mercedes’ new generation of front-wheel drive compact cars continue to be on the rise, with 28,211 vehicles of the A-Class, B-Class and CLA-Class being sold in February 2014, representing an increase of 27.4 percent compared to February 2013. Since the start of the year, Mercedes-Benz sold 55,409 compact cars (up 29.7 percent).
The carmaker expects further growth from the fourth model of its compact range, the GLA crossover, launched on March 15 in Europe. Last year, Mercedes sold 371,399 compact cars, up 64 percent compared to 2012.
By Dan Mihalascu
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